Thursday, September 25, 2014

This article is the first in a series that I want to address a number of issues that concern me. There are a number of issues that might, at first, seem unrelated, but as you will see - in the end they all come together to form a real risk.

While many people will shy away once an article starts talking about your rights, or your freedoms, I beg of you not to shy away from reading what I have to say. I'm not going to propose some wild conspiracy theroy. I'm not going to try to say that the government is trying to control us. I'm not going to say (in most cases) that there is evil afoot. I am not proposing that the end is near and that the things I am pointing out are a sign of the times.

I simply want to point out things that have and are happening that puts you at risk.

The problem is not one thing, but many things (or a confluence if you will) that have and are happening that are resulting in more people, innocent people in many cases I believe, into prisons. This is a problem that can impact anyone - even you.

The problems I'll discuss are ones that have arisen as a result of human nature and attempts to respond to real and important problems - but in having done so the responses have caused a number of unintended consequences to happen resulting in things that not right.

Finally, these problems are also ones with deep emotional ties. As such, people have a hard time addressing them without emotion. Because of the emotional nature of these issues, there have been knee jerk responses at all levels of the government, and even with various groups of people and individuals.

So, what this post is about are real problems, that are happening now. They are impacting people now, and I'll bet they have impacted some people you know already. If they have not - then they will.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

We know who you are Joe.
Do you want us to unmask you and your folk for the cowards you are?
Glad to do so...
It was so easy... Harassment is a crime Joe....
Sheep... do you know the sound sheep make...? Baaaacccccaaaaa....

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a communist;Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist;Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist;Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew;Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
―
Martin Niemöller

Another quote I love is this one:
“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi

We use the word coward and cringe. Yet, at one time or another, we are all guilty of cowardliness. That is human. There are cowardly acts, and cowards and the two are not synonymous. The question is not did we commit a cowardly act, , but what did we do with it. How did we take that moment and become better because of it? That is the mark of a coward and what distinguishes that person from every other human being. The cowardly act and how you deal with your moment of cowardliness in it's light.

You see, I have had my own moments of cowardly acts. I see no pride in those acts and I do not seek to justify them once I see them for what they truly are. I try to look back and I see my cowardliness and I own it, I accept it and I admit it humbly and hope to learn from it. I hope to be stronger as a result of that which I recognize was a me being less than I could have been. I'm not perfect at it, sometimes it's hard to see ourselves in a dispassionate manner - but I try.

It is those we love that suffer from our cowardly acts and if in those acts we truly become cowards. It is the coward who professes to love someone, and yet, willingly allows that someone to be usurped through their cowardly acts which go uncorrected.

As with Hiroshima, those who were consumed with the fire are not those that suffered the most. It is those who were exposed to the radiation and it's untold effects, that will suffer. I'm am not calling them cowards, of course, I am simply comparing what happened to them to what happens to the coward. It is the long term destruction wrought by cowardliness that we do not see nor can we expect because, just like the radiation, the cause is invisible and the impacts unknown.

For all of us, in our cowardly moments, there will be a day of reckoning. The reckoning is not the just judgement of whatever God you might or might not believe in, but it is the after effect of our decisions years down the road. The reckoning does not come in threats or duress, but through natural consequences of the action itself. Our actions or lack of actions, for what ever reason the cowardliness comes, will come back to haunt us.

Because, in our cowardliness, we choose to ignore the truth that we know (or that we might learn if we but looked for it), and we fail to act as we should have acted in the beginning. Over time, this just builds on itself until, we have no idea what the truth is. Since we don't know the truth, we don't know the implications of that truth - until years down the line the implications are made manifest.

And God help us if our cowardliness is unchecked when we have children. If we choose to live in our cowardliness what is the long term impact to our children? If we allow children to perform cowardly acts without consequence or correction, who is truly responsible for such a thing? We are. In this, again, beyond whatever God you might have to deal with someday, your children will bring your cowardliness full circle and you will reap what you sow.

And when the impacts of our unchecked cowardliness is made manifest - it can be so bloody. We wonder what happened and don't realize that we have lost ourselves in the fog created by our cowardliness so long ago. The coward inside has crafted a story and we have chosen to believe it and internalize it. Even when the result of your cowardliness is made manifest - it's likely that the coward will never realize the real root cause of that manifestation because the root cause is forgotten - in another act of cowardliness.

The coward is the one that hides in the darkness, cloaked in anonymity - hurling threats, accusations and false information to hurt another. You see, a coward is a rat, and rats scurry from the light because it shows them for who they are.

I challenge everyone to stand up and take stock of yourself. Are your actions those of a one with principle or one with a streak of cowardliness. Do you stand up for what is right, do you seek the truth, or do you just wait and hope that the answers will magically manifest themselves for you? Do you shrink from the hard truths and give in to the easy lies - that make it easier to live your life? Do you face your demons or do you shrink from them? Do you tell the truth, no matter the cost - or do you take the easy road to lies and forging of false memories? Do you choose to make your own decisions, or do you just surf with the crowd and hope not to be noticed or held accountable?

I am not perfect and I suspect that I will still have moments of cowardliness... I hope that I can look back on those moments, learn from them, and move forward as a better man understanding the mistakes I have made.

I hope you will do the same. So that when the day of accounting comes - and it will - that you will look yourself in the face and be able to say, "I was once a coward - and this is the cause. I am a coward no more - and that is the result." It's an iterative process, but it's a noble one.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Don't you just love cowards? People that sign onto your blog and use some fictional name and write all sorts of stupid things about you? Seems there is this person called Joe Truth.... ever heard of him? Well, he's a total coward. He hides behind anonymity (that means in secret Joe - just in case you have a problem with big words) like any coward.

Joe, how about you come clean about who you are there. It's just a matter of time before I reverse engineer your IP address and find out who you really are. Did I mention I have a list of everyone that has pinged this web site in the last several weeks Joe? No? Does that shock you Joe?

Harassment is a crime Joe... I'd suggest you contact me quickly before I decide to call the authorities. You have two days Joe... or I will pursue charges of harassment against you. Hope to hear from you coward. You may freely reply to this post via a comment or you may email me at n096772@gmail.com. Either way, I doubt I will hear from you.... you see rats always run when they find out that light is about to be exposed on them. You have 48 hours to contact me Joe. It's 10:30pm my time on 9/23/2014. Good luck Joe.

Witchunts have been around for a long time now. This link provides a history of which craft persecution over the years. It seems that the which hunt starts when someone in authority starts an "inquisition" of sorts. In the mid-1400's people were fleeing the inquisition... those that were caught were tortured and forced into confessions of all sorts of acts.

It's funny what beating down a man, woman or child constantly, will do to that person. It's amazing the things they will say when attacked by authority. In the mid-1400's, in the midst of their constant torture or even under constant questioning and pressure - those accused would finally admit to almost anything just to stop the inquisition. From the previous link, here is a description of some of the things the defendants admitted too:

Defendants
admitted to flying on poles and animals to attend assemblies presided
over by Satan appearing in the form of a goat or other animal.
Some
defendants told investigators that they repeatedly kissed Satan's anus
as a display of their loyalty. Others admitted to casting spells
on
neighbors, having sex with animals, or causing storms.

As time went on, the "Church" decided that it had a responsibility to hunt down and kill these whiches.... Many of whom were women.. Malleus maleficarum sibility or "Hammer of the witches" told terrifying stories of witches having sex with any old daemon, killing children and stealing a mans penis.

In the 1500's the kill rate of witches started to go up even higher.Switzerland killed over 500 in one year alone, 1000 were killed in Italy.

Then it really went crazy when one witchcraft defendant told the court that he had 100,000 fellow witches running around the country. The result - Judges quickly eliminated many of the protections that were afforded to other accused. Over about 160 years some 50,000 to 80,000 suspected witches were killed in Europe. 80% of those were women.

In 1692 we had the infamous witch trials of Salem, which you can read about here. I've been to Salem and I've seen the court where they hung the 19 men and women convicted of witchcraft. In the hysteria of the moment they also crushed a man to death for refusing to admit to being a witch. Even children were accused, and in one case a child was forced to watch her mother be taken to the gallows and hung in front of her. This little girls name was Dorcas Good. Why was Dorcas accused of witchcraft? Because three other girls her age (4 years old) said the specter (or Ghost) of Dorcas bit them.

Now - why would a 4 year old lie about such a thing - much less 3 of them. I mean, why would three four year old little kids lie like that - are they not pure and innocent and incapable of lying at that age? Especially about important things, how could three four year olds make up such a story? In the trials people would present their "bad luck" as evidence that someone was a witch.

Of course, when you are stuck in jail - the gallows awaiting you - you might well be willing to tell a story or two of witchcraft if you think it might get you out of trouble. People became desperate. They didn't want to be thought of as a witch, they didn't want to be accused as one, they were scared because they believed witches were everywhere and they had people in "the know" who would continue to preach the reality of witches, daemons and the risk they pose to the community.

The admission of things like "spectral evidence" (for example, being visited by someone's ghost) was accepted as real evidence in these courts - we might laugh about that now, but it's a reality that defendants had to deal with. The accused often were not even afforded legal council, lest they put a spell on them - or they would be walked in the court room backwards for the same reason. All of this stuff we might laugh at and think that it can't happen today - but in fact, this kind of human behavior happens all the time. Even now - we are subject to the mentality of the witchhunt.

So, eventually the witch hunting disappeared from Salem - only after the death of a number of people both from the gallows, being crushed to death or dying in prison. We don't hear much about witches these days - we don't get gathered into a storm about somebody pointing his finger and causing a blister to appear on our body. We don't claim to see peoples ghosts or that we saw them out in the forest looking for frogs for their potions. If we did, we would not care because we have advanced enough that even for those who do believe in witches - in the way they did back in the past, the rest of us know better. We know that witch hunts are silly exercises and we know they make people do, say and believe silly and impossible things.

Or do we? I believe that witch hunts are still here - alive and well - or at least the spirit of them is. The hunt is in a different form, but the psychology is the same. The blindness of those who's focus is on the Witch is so single minded that they are willing to suspend all belief, no mater how impossible the accusations are once the evidence is presented, and believe that before them stands a witch.